"No, Elsie; I have already said that it is quite necessary for you to tell all you know."
"O papa! don't make me; I don't like to do it," she urged, with tears in her eyes.
"I should be very much ashamed of you, and quite unwilling to own you as my child, if under any other circumstances you were willing to tell tales," he replied, in a tone of kindness that quite surprised Elsie, who always trembled at the very thought of opposing the slightest resistance to his will; "but," he added, firmly, "it is the only way to save Jim; if you do not now make a full disclosure of all you know, he will be severely whipped and sent away to work on the plantation, which will distress his poor old mother exceedingly. Elsie, I think you would be doing very wickedly to allow an innocent person to suffer when you can prevent it; and besides, I will add the weight of my authority, and say you must do it at once; and you well know, my daughter, that there can be no question as to the duty of obedience to your father."
He paused, gazing earnestly down into the little tearful, downcast, blushing face at his side.
"Have I not said enough to convince you of your duty?" he asked.
"Yes, papa; I will tell you all about it," she answered in a tremulous tone.
Her story was told with evident reluctance, but in a simple, straightforward manner, that attested its truthfulness.
Mr. Dinsmore listened in silence, but with an expression of indignation on his handsome features; and the moment she had finished he rose, and again taking her hand, led her from the room, saying, as he did so:
"You must repeat this story to your grandfather."
"O papa! must I? Won't you tell him? please don't make me do it," she pleaded tremblingly, and hanging back.